Spartacus Actors Getting Gladiator Ready!

This Video Monday installment features the actors from the first season of the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. All had to attend a few weeks of boot camp to get in super shape for the physically demanding roles.

Please note the late, great Andy Whitfield, the original Spartacus, who passed away recently. It's always a wake up call to see someone so young and vibrant taken away. Time is short. Do the work and enjoy the results!

The Work You Don't See

I'll be talking to someone about working out, what I did that morning, or what I was eating and sometimes I'll show a photo of one of the women I've met who's had fantastic results doing P90X or Insanity or any one of the programs and ususally, with alarming regularity, I'll hear this:

"Oh, she doesn't have to workout!"

Then I'll see if I can find the persons before photo and get a "That's not the same person," or "What kind of surgery did they have," which usually culminates in "You're a filthy liar!" (I'm not really...I'm quite a clean liar, thank you very much!)

People seem to have a mental block...when they see the photos, or see the woman or man on the beach with the fit physique, that they were lucky or just born that way. They don't realize the hours of work in the gym, with the workout DVD's, the correct eating habits, that allow that girl to wear the tiny bikini and look that good. It's not a case of osmosis. She or he didn't just rub the P90X DVD's all over their bodies and get results.

It was the getting up at 5am so they could fit that workout in before work - the only time they could do it. It was the commitment to eating healthy and right. It was forming the habit of fitness. It was getting into the mindset of just pushing play, or going to the gym.

I suppose "Oh, you don't have to workout." is kind of a compliment.

But really it's all the work you don't see.

Joe

Greatest Muscle Up Celebreation Ever - the JOY of Fitness!

Video Monday begins with a great video I think shows the sheer JOY of accomplishment! It wasn't perfect. In fact it was probably the ugliest muscle up ever but the celebration afterwards is priceless!

Truthfully, if I had been there, I would have been jumping and screaming along with them.

And that's what I do...scream and jump and cheer YOUR I-did-it-iv-ness...because it's not about me, or "I", but you! I really feel that when you succeed, I succeed.

Please let me know what YOU think!

I Didn't Like It and That's...OK.

Firstly, in the interests of full disclosure, let me say that I've consumed mass quantities of the Beachbody Kool-Aid. I love the company, the people, the products, the community, just about everything! But its the "just about" that I want to talk about here. Beachbody had come out, over the last few months, with the new program P90X2 and a new flavor of the ultra premium health shake Shakeology, Tropical Strawberry, a totally vegan formulation.

I had tasted the Tropical flavor at the 2011 Coach Summit and it was amazing! It tasted so good, so smooth, mixed with pineapple and yogurt and a few other things. I could not wait for it to come out. People who had already received it were marvelling at how good it was the taste, the flavor, it was fantastic!

I got mine! And I was underwhelmed. From how it tasted at Summit to how it tasted now was..different. I still think its the best tasting of the Shakeology flavors, but how it mixes up leaves me cold. But almost everyone else is raving about it! "It tastes great!" "Mixed it with xx!" "Its the only flavor I'll drink now!" And I..kinda didn't like it. It must be just me...something must be wrong with me...

And then P90X2 arrived. I was in the middle of my current round of P90X and wanted to finish that to get ready for X2. What fantastic results I had! I literally could not wait to tear open the box and get to it! Finally I finished the X. Time for X2! Could not wait!

And I didn't like it. Wait that's not right...I really didn't like it. No...wait...I hated it! Yes, you read that right...I hated it. And it wasn't just "I hate this workout." It was 5-6 weeks of just not liking any of it! X2 is a very different type of program. "Functional Fitness" they call it. Its a lot of balance, stability ball, one-footed-ness. After 6 weeks I learned that I am unbalanced and unstable.

And it didn't help that everyone else doing it was, again, raving at how wonderful this was. "Couldn't wait to do P.A.P. or Plyocide or Core," they said. Again I figured it must just be me because, truthfully, P90X2 made me not want to work out..that's how much I disliked it. So once more I assumed there must be something wrong with me.

Unfortunately, this negativity began to affect every other area of my life! Truly! I didn't want to work out, I felt worthless and weak, I was miserable and depressed. Why didn't I like this? Everyone else did...what was wrong with me?

And then I talked to Kim Bemis, another Beachbody coach and all around swell chick, and she said seven words that completely changed my attitude:

"Joe, it's OK not to like something."

So...I put P90X2 back in the box. It's not for me...right now. I may revisit it sometime in the future. I'm doing a P90X/Insanity hybrid workout for the next 90 days and I AM LOVING IT! I can't wait to get out there and sweat. And I've thrown the new Tai Cheng program in too, which I'm loving also!

I guess the long winded point of this whole thing is - Try it, stick with it, and if you don't like it...that's fine. Move on to something else. But do something. It was a surprisingly hard lesson to learn. But it's also given me some insight into those who start a program and quit. They try, its too hard, they stop. The magic is in the moving on to something else.

Don't like Insanity? Try RevAbs. Don't like P90X? Try Power 90. Don't like this? Try that.

Simple enough but it was such a difficult lesson to learn.

Joe

Shakeology - You're Thinking the Wrong Way

When I talk to someone about fitness, how I've lost over 40 pounds, workouts and then get to Shakeology, the remark I hear most often is, "That's too expensive!" It does cost a bit more than Ensure or some other protein shake or health drink.

But you're thinking about it all wrong! You are not adding something new to the mix, you are replacing a meal! Allow me to paint a picture:

Shakeology is 150 calories of 70+ all natural, healthy ingredients, chock full of superfoods and nutrients. You get:

• 1g Fat
• 17g Carbs
• 18g Protein

And the cost is around $4 per serving.

Lets say now that you go to McDonalds and get a Big Mac, Large Fries and a Chocolate shake (well...that's what I would get :)) You get:

Big Mac

• 540 calories
• 29g Fat
• 45g Carbs
• 25g Protein

Large Fries

• 500 calories
• 25g Fat
• 63g Carbs
• 6g Protein

Chocolate Milk Shake

• 440 calories
• 10g Fat
• 76g Carbs
• 10g Protein

So for that one meal you've had:

• 1480 calories
• 64g Fat
• 184g Carbs
• 41g Protein

IN ONE MEAL!! Not to mention the fact that there've been reports recently that McDonald's washes its hamberger meat with some kind of amonia compound to keep it fresh! And you've probably paid about $9 for all this.

So by my calculations you could of had 150 filling, healthy calories and saved $5 or had almost 1500 calories of an insanely bad for you breakdown of fat and carbs. And if you're going to McDonalds or Burger King or Wendy's several times a week...how can you afford NOT to get Shakeology.

Check out http://www.myshakeology.com/josefk for more in-depth information about Shakeology, Doctor's testimonials and just a fun look at something I drink every day.

P90X Results - Not Bad For An Old Man!

Finished Round 3 (I think!) of P90X on Feb 12, 2012. I can honestly say that this time I brought it with renewed vigor and consistency. I placed more of an emphasis on nutrition and supplementation and I think it paid off!


                    <---235lbs        194lbs--->           

I started my Fitness Journey at around 235 pounds and a 44" waist. As of now I'm at 194 pounds and a little less than 36". By my calculations thats 41lbs and over 8"! Not too bad for a 52 year old fella.

Do the beachbody programs work? Yes. I'm proof! Want to know more? Go to http://www.beachbodycoach.com/josefk and explore. Do you want to wait another day to start getting into the best, healthiest, fittest shape of your life?

And if I can do it, anyone can!

Joe

MuscleTech's Neurocore - One Week In

I've been taking Neurocore, MuscleTech's pre-workout forula for a week now and just wanted to post a quick review of what its doing for me. Note that for maximum benefits the comapny says to take 3 scoops of the formula. I've been taking 2 scoops, still testing my tolerence. That being said:

Taste: I've been drinking the Fruit Punch flavor. Short on fruit. Long on punch. Bleah is too tame a word to use to describe the taste. I'd have to go with bleah squared. It's the after taste that gets you. Believe me...it's noting you'd want to buy out of the vending machine! However, it makes up for the tongue rape by doing what it's supposed to.

Strength: I did the RevAbs 90 day program before starting another round of P90X. RevAbs is high on cardio, not muscle-building weight lifiting so I was prepared for the amount of weights and my strength to be diminished. NOT SO! I can honestly say that I noticed marked improvement in all areas. Numbers of pushups and pullups increased and the weights went up anywhere from 2.5 to 10 lbs across the board, depending on the exercise. I was not prepared for that and allowed my eyes to get bigger than my head and managed to pull a muscle in my neck! Good times.

Pump: I got that feeling! Felt good. Felt big. Sex-ay.

Focus: It was not the laser-like focus I had read some people having with this. It was more of a single-minded accomplish the task at hand mindset that moved me relentlessly from set to set, move to move, exercise to exercise. It made the workout fly by with energy to spare.

I haven't noticed any post workout crash to speak of but have to continuously remind myself to drink more water during the day. All in all...I love this stuff. It works. Although, I can't imagine what kind of improvement there will be when I take 3 scoops of Neurocore. If anyone has, please let me know what to expect.

Comments always welcome. Talk at you soon!

Joe